JUNE 17, 2004

THIRD CLINIC DAY.

     The cool snap that we’d been enjoying the first couple days here (it only got up to about 83 degrees on Monday) is definitely over.  After the AM fog burned off about 9 AM today, it was hot!  This afternoon, it was hotter.

     We made it to this church building – our second site – before 8 AM, and there were already 30 or 40 people waiting.  When all the waiting and sweating was done, we counted 161 patients today.

     While the vast majority was, again, only suffering from the everyday headaches, arthritis pains, upset stomachs, and worms, a few patients were sick.  One girl’s asthma was acting up, and it was quite a task to teach her (and show her) how to use an inhaler.  I guess it’s a strange concept if one has never before seen an asthma drug inhaler.  A woman with a breast mass that she’s worried about for two years came to the clinic, and James is working through some of his local contacts to see if a mammogram can be arranged soon.

     Several kids had respiratory infections, and one unfortunate 10-year-old sustained an apparent supra-condylar (above the elbow) fracture a month ago that was not treated.  Now, it was healed in such a way so that he could bend that elbow not even 90 degrees, thus making it impossible for him to use his right hand to do things like touching his face or his hair.

     As we left the clinic to return the 10 minutes to the Watts’ compound, we took a different route so that we could see a part of town that was built on the city dump.  The one or two-room huts abutted up against fresh garbage, and the stench was nearly overwhelming to those of us passing by in the van.  James told us that the water they drink is from a well that’s just 25 feet deep under the dump, and that one of the upcoming projects the Watts and Missionary Ventures are involved in will drill a deep well – perhaps 180 feet to the good water – at the church for these people (who will carry the good water in buckets and jars to their homes less than a half mile from the church).

     Everyone – and this really is everyone – around here suffers from significant eye irritation, lots of them have recurring nosebleeds, and many of the kids have chronic, mild wheezing in their lungs.  We wonder whether all the clay dust in the air, or the smoke from burning garbage, or maybe even something that all those DEA helicopters out at the local airport may be spraying (in their battles with the drug producers) may be causing some of this irritation.

     Imagine living for years on and in the city dump, breathing the rotting garbage fumes, walking or biking the dusty streets, inhaling all that smoke – well, it’s no wonder there are eye, nose, and lung problems around here.

     We are so blessed to live in a country where there are at least some rules about smoke and air pollution, where sidewalks don’t have four-inch “steps” either up or down every 20 or 30 yards downtown, where anyone can stumble into any hospital ER at any time and be cared for, and where the government has programs to allow the purchase of food for our poorest citizens.

     The Watts’ goal is to have four feeding centers for children in this area, each one to provide a real meal five times per week for each kid, instead of the bit of rice and occasional scrap of chicken that comprises their usual “meals.”  They are trying to solicit support for these feeding centers now, and will expand each one as the funding sources become adequate.

     The World Health Organization says that just three solid meals per week make a big difference in the overall health of growing children, and around here it costs less than two dollars per meal to do that for a child…..  or about the cost of a Dairy Queen Blizzard in America.

     The other part of this dream that James shared with us tonight is to be able to find a source of one-a-day vitamins so that they can give one with each of these meals at the feeding centers.  We all pray that, in God’s time, all this can happen for the children of Pucallpa.

Becky passing out coloring books.	Brenda playing kick ball.
Carol convincing a child to take medicines.	Clay and Becky taking a break.
Debbie, "Free Medical Clinic".	A home built on the city dump site.
Farmacia - Debbie, Susan, Jim, Carol.	In the children's church.
Renae cleaning sunglasses.	Becky at the feeding center with coloring book. In  the background, Maria is checking in people to visit the clinic.